Stay with Me
by Crimson2006
Summary: Sasuke always knew that Naruto was broken. AU. Please read the warning! Implied Boy x Boy.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto. I make no money from this.

**Warning:** As a heads up, this drabble deals with dark themes and makes mention of rape and death. It's also has mentions of male/male relations. If that's not your thing, hit the back button.

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**Stay with Me**

Written By: Crimson2006

For: Darkgodess

No Beta

Sasuke had always known that Naruto was broken. From the first moment his dark eyes settled against those breathtaking blue, that realization had become hauntingly transparent. Death, pain, suffering and desolation; each element seemed to flicker unmatched against the flow of time, too potent to be ignored as it worked to consume all—too many pieces shattered to logically be put back together again. Truly Naruto was one of the unfortunate who would never quite be healed. It was just in moments like these –when the sepulchral shade of tragedy bled through to the surface at full force – when that darkness was flushed to the forefront of reality– that the reflection of such knowledge lingered in manifold.

The raven's breath hitched slightly as his bare feet stepped against the chilled bathroom tiles; the obscurity of the area countered by the dim luminescence of the moon as it seeped through an opened window. It was hard to see, but he could see well enough—that muted silhouette sitting inside the empty bath tub, legs crossed and knees pulled close to a bare, tanned chest. As if done as a means of comfort, Naruto had wrapped his arms around his lower extremities, slowly rocking himself back and forth like a child who was frightened and only knew the element of self reassurance. Sasuke sighed. It was a pitiful sight by most terms, but he could see through it. To him it was more than obvious that the blonde had suffered from another nightmare –the fragments of Naruto's mind caught up in the mental images of the past– provoking a detailed reality that the teenager felt the need to escape from.

"Hey," Sasuke whispered delicately, shivers running up his spine as his feet continued further into the bathroom, closer to the boy who was in pain, closer to his boyfriend. The raven could feel his heart break, his soul ache with every step. Only Naruto could pull those kinds of emotions from him, but they were nothing compared to what the younger man was enduring. "You okay…" he added a moment later, not lost to the fact that the answer was obviously no, but it was more about following a routine that worked.

Although it probably would have been missed by the common eye, what Naruto was suffering from was nothing short of a post traumatic episode. Thus he wasn't alright. He wasn't anything near it. It was just from past experience Sasuke found that this was the best way to approach and assess the situation without unnecessarily escalating it. Rather, the question gave him time to gauge just how much of Naruto's mind was still reliving itself amid the twisted memories, and how badly the damage was going to be for that round.

"Would you like me to stay with you; would that be alright Naruto?"

Blue eyes—so beautiful on any other occasion; so bright with life and yet swallowed by unforgivable pain—looked to him before Naruto shook his head in the negative. He didn't want anyone to be near him, but at the same time one of his tanned hands reached out. It was a silent request that Sasuke knew and understood. Part of Naruto didn't want to be touched at all, and part of him wanted nothing more than to be held. He needed the reassurance that he wasn't alone.

"Okay then," the raven responded, his feet continuing to the tub before his own larger hand reached out and took the smaller one in its grasp. He waited a moment before he advanced a little further and actually climbed into the basin. Naruto's arms instantly untangling themselves from his legs and wrapping around his neck as the nineteen year old crawled into his lap.

"I just want it to go away," Naruto sobbed, his chest suddenly trembling in short spasms as if the heavy feelings enveloping him had finally managed to break free. Sasuke was there so he would be alright. Sasuke was there and the elder always made him feel better. "Please, I just want to forget…"

"I know," the elder comforted, his arms now holding the teenager in his lap, rubbing small circles against that strong back as he rocked them together in a lulling rhythm. He knew it had to be hard. At sixteen Naruto had been raped and literally stabbed to death. Pronounced dead on arrival, it had been a flat out miracle that the doctors were able to resuscitate him at all. Still, less welcoming were the memories that lingered with the situation. Naruto couldn't forget. Not the way that it had hurt to be raped and then stabbed—not the feeling of death as it had spread through his body and pulled him under into the darkness. Mentally he'd just never recovered. And after three years of therapy, Sasuke was the only one that was able to get this close when he had an episode.

Perhaps it was a bit unorthodox, but the truth of it was, Sasuke had once been Naruto's therapist. At first things had gone the way they always did. He'd seen his patient on an as needed basis, but then as the months carried on into year's things began to change. Sasuke felt his heart open up and go out to the blonde. He'd found himself worrying about Naruto when he had no reason to, thinking about the other just for the sake of thinking about him, and even calling him up on days when they didn't have sessions. It was around then –a little over two years into the treatment– that Sasuke realized he'd fallen in love with the blonde. Oddly enough, Naruto seemed to reciprocate those feelings on a similar level and the two had moved into a small little apartment, set to taking things slow. To this day Sasuke had yet to go all the way with Naruto, but he understood the weight the blonde carried and how difficult it was to bear. When sex happened, it happened, and it would not transpire a moment sooner. It was not something to be forced, which consequentially was so much of the original problem and the heartache Naruto carried.

"Shhhh, it's okay," Sasuke hushed further when Naruto continued to cry against him; trying to offer the only comfort he could. "It'll be okay.

"No, it won't…"

"Yes it will, just try to relax."

"I can't. You don't understand. He didn't rape you Sasuke! He didn't stab you to death! Do you know what it feels like to be lying in a pool of your own blood, your heart slowing down, your lungs burning for air that's all around you—but you can't even seep it."

Sasuke grew quiet at the last part and he held onto Naruto even tighter. It broke his heart to hear the pain in that normally sweet voice and he could feel liquid pooling around his own eyes, not actually shedding the tears, but coming close. Maybe he didn't understand directly, but that didn't mean he was eluded by the topic or what it signified. "No, but I can see how much you're hurting and that means something doesn't it?"

"I don't know, maybe…" Naruto commented, his tears slipping out as they soaked the front of Sasuke's night shirt. "That still doesn't change the fact that I want to forget though—that I want those memories and feelings to go away."

"You know that's not the way the world works," Sasuke finally answered with honestly, one hand moving up Naruto's back as fingers idly played with sun kissed locks. "Don't deceive yourself into thinking there's an easy way out. Things never truly leave us. We just have to work though them with the strength we find in ourselves. We have to overcome them so that they don't rule over us."

"I don't know if I can do that Sasuke…"

"Sure you can. I know you can. You know you can too."

"Not alone though, not when it hurts like this…"

Sasuke gave a small exasperated sigh. "Naruto, you don't have to do it alone, you have me. I love you, I won't leave you. Not for anything in the world."

Naruto sniffed again but seemed to calm himself a little more with those words; his head pressed against Sasuke chest, listening to the man's heartbeat as he found comfort in those arms and lulling beat. "You promise?"

"Yeah I promise," Sasuke reassured. "I'll stay with you always. We'll get through this together." And he was sure that they would.


End file.
